What has already been said is very true. Except in the case of Leica. The Leica's with the black bodies and black lenses have better bokeh than the silver ones.

11-23-2005, 12:34 AM

Daniel Lawton

Thats because the black lenses absorb the solar rays and facilitate the production of "glow" while the silver ones reflect this solar energy thus producing substandard "glow."

11-23-2005, 09:16 AM

Surly

Absorb solar rays and reflect solar rays? You're kidding right? How can the bokeh be effected by anything other than internal components? You guys are taking the piss arent you?

11-23-2005, 11:22 AM

Steve Roberts

[QUOTE=Surly] The black finish is not as durable, typically. As a result, the black will wear and show brassing more rapidly than a silver finished camera. QUOTE]

Hi All,
To add to the above comment, a contact of mine who was in the photographic retail trade once told me how he'd sold a black bodied 35 SLR to a customer. A few days later, the customer re-appeared to buy a case. He had the SLR with him, but when he produced it, it was showing brassing around all the usual wear points to the degree one would expect to see after years of use. On questioning, the customer admitted that he'd whiled away an evening with a bit of fine abrasive paper and some Brasso trying to give the new camera the kind of worn look that it might have gained with heavy use in the hands of a pro.
On a different note, I had reason to take apart my black Pentax ME some years ago. I'd always been under the impression that where the black coating had worn off, I was seeing brass underneath, but on taking the top off it was immediately apparent that there wasn't a bit of metal in sight. The whole top was plastic, carefully coloured to look like brass when its coating wore off on the corners.

Best wishes,
Steve

11-23-2005, 11:49 AM

Flotsam

When Contax reintroduced the S2, they also offered the S2b which had a Black body. I said "Forget it! If I have to pay a sick price for a Titanium camera, I'll be d@mned if I am going to get it covered up with paint".

11-23-2005, 12:59 PM

narsuitus

In 35mm, I use both. The black body had an advantage over the chrome body in two situations:

1. When attempting to shoot reluctant subjects inconspicuously, the black body draws less attention than the shiny chrome body.

2. When shooting small subjects on or under glass, the reflection of the black body in the glass is less than that of the chrome body.

On one hand, I personally prefer the appearance of the black body; on the other hand, I prefer the way the chrome body withstands everyday wear and tear.

11-23-2005, 04:03 PM

Daniel Lawton

Quote:

Originally Posted by Surly

Absorb solar rays and reflect solar rays? You're kidding right? How can the bokeh be effected by anything other than internal components? You guys are taking the piss arent you?

Yes, I was being sarcastic. My apologies

11-23-2005, 04:08 PM

Charles Webb

I still think I get better gas milage in my car when I am carrying black finished cameras, Nikon in my case. I would trade Bokeh any time for better gas milage! Charlie.............

11-23-2005, 04:21 PM

Eric Rose

Of course I was joking! Any chance I get to poke a stick at the bokeh boys I will ha ha. But I must say plopping a heavy metal black body Nikon on the bar counter worked wonders in my younger days.

11-23-2005, 05:29 PM

Seele

When sensitive materials became fast enough to enable hand-held exposures, hand cameras became the fashion and to make them less obvious, American makers started to have them covered in black leather, with metal parts finished in black. Remnants of this approach can still be seen nowadays with cameras partially covered in leather.

Anyway, this tradition carried on when smaller format cameras became viable: even during the earlier days of 35mm photography, both early Leica and Contax cameras were finished likewise, with metal parts finished in black.

It was when nickel plating became economical enough that larger camera parts started to be bright finished, and later on, when chrome plating became affordable as an industrial process, the use of this harder-wearing finish became wide-spread: camera then acquired the connoctation of "male jewellery".

Sure enough, with modern manufacturing techniques and materials, black cameras are actually cheaper to produce: the plastics materials can be of solid black colour so that no extra finishing would be required to make a black-bodied camera. In that sense, a "chrome-finish" camera would cost more to make, and of course, many plastics-bodied cameras with applied chrome finish can look pretty tatty after a while as the surface coating gets rubbed off.

For me, black cameras remain a more viable option for my style of 35mm photographic work for being less conspicuous.